Mitchell Layton/Getty ImagesDrew Storen had a successful 2014 season with the Nationals.

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Drew Storen, closer of the Washington Nationals, grew up as a huge fan of sport, and given his current vocation, he’s had an opportunity to meet some legends, which he relates enthusiastically.

Storen has a picture of longtime Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully from 1957, and so Storen used the power of the Internet to acquire the exact model of microphone that appears in that picture. During one of the Nationals’ trips into Dodger Stadium, Storen took the microphone upstairs to the booth where Scully works and asked him to autograph it -- and, as Storen recalls, he got to sit and listen to 30 minutes of incredible stories from Scully.

Another time, Storen visited the same physical therapist as future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera, and Storen’s appointment happened to be just before Rivera’s appointment. As his time with the therapist ended, he got to meet Rivera, but then a moment later, the therapist summoned him back into the room, and over the next 45 minutes or so, Storen got to chat with the greatest closer of all time.

“Of course I asked the one question that anyone [in baseball] would ask him,” Storen said.

Jim McIsaac/Getty ImagesMartin Prado is preparing for multiple roles with his new team, the Miami Marlins.

JUPITER, Fla. – The memory is clear in Martin Prado’s mind, and as he spoke about it Friday in the Marlins’ indoor batting cages, the rain falling outside, Prado wasn’t so much describing as he was reliving. He used his hands and gestures to replicate and convey the sheer horror of the moment.

This was about the instance in which Prado manned third base and Giancarlo Stanton used the full force of his 6-foot-6, 250-pound frame and blistered a baseball right at Prado’s soul and body, although not necessarily in that order.

Prado smiled slightly as he began to relate the story, but he is a dead-serious professional, which is part of the reason the Marlins traded for him during the offseason.

But the details of what has happened with Hamilton are still sketchy. Maybe even for Major League Baseball officials who have spoken directly to Hamilton. Maybe even to Hamilton himself. Such is the nature of addiction.

As Rob Manfred faces his first major discipline case since he assumed the role of commissioner, he is faced with the question of what to do with a star player -- one of the highest paid in the sport -- who has a long and serious history of addiction.

The Angels are bracing themselves for the possibility that Josh Hamilton will be disciplined by Major League Baseball, as Mike DiGiovanna reported. Hamilton’s father-in-law told Steven Marcus that he has hit a bump in the road.

Hamilton is a big name, and for his past achievements and stardom, the Angels committed a five-year, $125 million deal to him after the 2012 season. But whether his absence from the Angels is brief or extended, the actual impact on the team

Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY SportsNo longer a part of the central cast in L.A., Andre Ethier is probably destined for somewhere else.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Spring training is supposed to present a time of optimism, when players look around and think about what can be accomplished with the group in the room. But for a small handful, this can be a time of frustration because they know they just don’t fit in.

Ethier is the longest-tenured Dodgers player, having broken in with the team in 2006. The Dodgers' tentative Opening Day plans are for Carl Crawford to start in left field, rookie Joc Pederson in center and Yasiel Puig in right, with Ethier the fourth outfielder.

"You're not wishing for it ever to end, but sometimes that opportunity takes you somewhere else," Ethier said. "I'm not going to do anything to sit here and force it. Hopefully it works itself out." [More…]

"I want the opportunity to play every day. My mind hasn't changed from when I told you guys that a couple months ago," Ethier said. "I felt like when I get a chance to play every day, I put up the numbers they ask of me. For some strange reason, it just happened that coming off a good 2012 season, in 2013 they took games away. You start to wonder why that happened. I feel like if I get a good full year in and get the at-bats, it starts to add up. It's tough when you get 300 at-bats and you're expected to hit 15 or 20 home runs."

Every time another team loses an outfielder or a designated hitter in the inevitable wave of injuries, Ethier will be an option. But he isn’t the only one who will probably spend this spring wondering if his playing time is going to happen in a different uniform.

General manager Jon Daniels indicated the club could soon pick up an option on Beltre for 2016, at a salary of $16 million. Beltre could guarantee the option with 586 plate appearances this year, but Daniels hopes by acting now to avoid creating a subplot that would hang over the club all season.

“We’ll address that relatively soon,” Daniels said. “We don’t want that to be a distraction nor even a story as we go through the year.”

The Rangers’ 2014 season disintegrated quickly in an avalanche of injuries, from Derek Holland to Yu Darvish to Prince Fielder to Shin-Soo Choo, and it made sense for them to at least consider some trades of players not tethered to their future. For example, they spoke with other teams during the summer about Alex Rios, who became eligible for free agency last fall.

But when I’d ask various sources about the possibility of Beltre being marketed, I’d be shooed away from the idea. The Rangers view Beltre as a legacy player, an all-time great third baseman who could finish his career with Texas and perhaps have the Rangers’ cap on his Hall of Fame plaque.

USA Today Sports, Getty Images Joey Votto , left, was limited to just 62 games last season, while Jay Bruce hit just .217.

Near the end of the Reds' lost season of 2014, Jay Bruce asked general manager Walt Jocketty if he could stop by his office for a conversation. By then, Bruce was already deep into the process of mentally preparing for 2015, having formulated his loose plans for the offseason.

He and Jocketty talked about what had gone wrong for Bruce, and for a team that opened 2014 with expectations of making the postseason. He told Jocketty that he intended to quickly resume the rehabilitation work on his surgically repaired left knee and then start his drills for the season sooner than he normally does.

Bruce followed through with everything he told Jocketty that day, and he burns for his next chance. "He is highly motivated to come back and have a good season," Jocketty said recently.

The GM senses the same about first baseman Joey Votto, who missed 100 games last season. Sean Marohn, the Reds' strength and conditioning coordinator, visited Votto several times in Toronto during the winter and reported that Votto is doing well. "I feel very good about both guys coming into camp healthy," Jocketty said.

That's crucial, because given the structure of the Reds' roster and the improvements of other teams within the National League Central, Cincinnati almost certainly cannot win without more from Bruce (who batted .217 last season with 18 homers) and Votto.

APCompared with two years ago, Joe Girardi sounds a lot more like A-Rod's manager now, not his friend.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Alex Rodriguez is the opposite of subtle, with personality traits and a history that seemingly guarantee some crazy ending to his playing career. After two decades of spectacular home runs and confessions and a record-setting suspension, even Hollywood screenwriters would have a difficult time imagining an ending that would be a topper to the drama he has produced.

But it may well be that the mechanism that drives Rodriguez out of the game in the months ahead will turn out to be relatively mundane. If Rodriguez cannot hit fastballs any more, he may get squeezed out by a good old-fashioned roster pinch, a time when the Yankees designate him for assignment, he passes through waivers unclaimed and is out of baseball. Because of the past problems between Rodriguez and the Yankees, there is a career lifeline commonly used for veterans in Rodriguez's situation that is simply not available to him. We'll get to that in a moment.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi talked Friday about how Rodriguez must show he deserves playing time, as Andrew Marchand writes. Girardi's tone in speaking about Rodriguez was somewhat different than two years ago, more antiseptic. He sounded more like Rodriguez's manager than his friend.

When he was first asked Friday about Rodriguez's handwritten apology, Girardi quickly veered to reiterate his own feelings about steroid use in baseball, about how it has hurt the game and how players' performances are perceived.

AP Photo/Alex BrandonThe role of the MLB umpire is set to change in the coming seasons as new rules for hitters develop.

A lot of parents would tell you they mostly concern themselves with the A-list of priorities. Keeping the kids safe, properly fed and on time to school, with homework completed.

Most tension is rooted in the murkiness of the B-list of priorities: the timely completion of chores, the condition of the room, time spent with electronics.

The daily challenges facing umpires hover along parallel lines. The A-list is correctly applying rules most integral to the play on the field, from the definition of the strike zone to safe-or-out calls on the bases.

Almost all of the trouble between umpires and players stems from a piece of the B-list: on-field conduct. Different umpires, managers and players have different views on how and when an umpire’s decision can be questioned, with so much hinging on the interpretation of facial expressions and tone.

This is the fault line in Major League Baseball’s effort to speed up the game, and why inevitably, the sport must turn to a pitch clock.

Getty ImagesWhere will 24-year-old slugger Yasiel Puig hit this season? And what about 22-year-old Bryce Harper?

When Joe Torre managed the New York Yankees, he liked to put pen to paper and jot down various lineup combinations to see how they might look and feel. His bench coach, Don Zimmer, would do the same, and they would discuss the combinations they had written out, like two mathematicians discussing a proof.

With lineups, however, there are no perfect answers, and no absolutes. Because the variables are changing constantly. Hitters streak or slump. Opposing managers poke and prod for the vulnerabilities in lineups, with different bullpen weapons. But most managers and general managers think about the possible structure of their batting order constantly, sorting through the quandaries.

Some are unwelcome problems. For instance, Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg must find a place to hit Ryan Howard, in the season after Howard has been told the team might be better off without him.

But other lineups present interesting puzzles, such as those that follow:

The Tampa Bay Rays' record of drafting in Andrew Friedman's time as their general manager was spotty, including the moment when they passed on Buster Posey and chose infielder Tim Beckham. There also were mistakes on free agents such as Pat Burrell.

But Friedman's era in Tampa Bay was an overwhelming success, which is why the Dodgers stalked him with promises of potential and power until he agreed to take over their baseball operations. What the Rays probably did better than anything was build bullpens, year after year, despite constant turnover because of the team's financial limitations.

Alessio Botticelli/GC ImagesAlex Rodriguez has a long way to go to win back the public's trust.

Alex Rodriguez will make himself available to a roomful of reporters sometime in the coming days, in what will amount to his first give-and-take session with the media since he agreed to his one-year suspension.

What will actually be given and what will be taken is not clear, though. After it's over, reporters can say they asked the questions they are expected to ask, and Rodriguez will be able to say he answered the questions asked of him. This is standard operating procedure when a public figure returns from suspension or scandal.

But a lot of the questions asked of Rodriguez will bear little to no meaning, because a lot of what he says -- almost all of it, in fact -- won't be believed. The reason why is that we were all here before

To understand how adept casinos are in their business, all you have to do is look around as you walk the Las Vegas Strip. Those massive buildings, with all f their glitter and lights, are there because the folks who run them know what it takes to win. When betting lines are established, well, you’d be crazy not to take them seriously.

But there are times when the lines raise an eyebrow -- like when they set their over/under victory projections for each of the 30 teams in baseball. On Friday, the Atlantis sports book in Reno posted their numbers. As usual, some are surprising -- and heck, they might even look like an opportunity, if I ever bet on baseball (and I don’t).

No real purpose is served by keeping him locked away from the sport anymore. The time has come for Major League Baseball to find some middle ground with Rose -- to let him back in, in some way, to create a loophole within the rules they control.

This year is the perfect time for Rose to be paroled by baseball. The All-Star Game is in Cincinnati this summer, and Rose should be on hand, perhaps even to throw out the first pitch, or more appropriately, catch it, as host to the baseball gala in his hometown. Rob Manfred has just taken over as commissioner from Bud Selig, who carried the responsibility of keeping Rose outside the gates in spite of a groundswell of fan support for his reinstatement. Selig knew what Giamatti went through in that horrible summer of 1989, during the stressful and devastating investigation of Rose, and because Giamatti died eight days after that announcement, no one could blame either of the two men who succeeded him, Fay Vincent and Selig, for harboring a personal distrust of Rose and a personal distaste for him. Rose committed baseball’s capital offense, betting on games, and then lied about his actions for years.

For his crime within the sport, Rose was given what could be regarded as the most significant penalty allowed for someone whose whole life has been built around baseball.

But with Manfred now in power, he should consider Rose’s situation again. Keeping him out no longer serves a practical purpose, and if Manfred lets him back in, Rose can help the Reds, at the very least.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that Manfred has to give Rose the benefit of full reinstatement -- nor should he, because of the precedent it would set. If Manfred welcomes Rose back into the sport with no strings attached, then he would have to consider posthumously reinstating Joe Jackson, Ed Cicotte and others who were banished from the sport. Manfred should not mitigate in any way the power of the penalty rendered upon those who bet on games. No player or team staff member who would actually consider betting on baseball should ever believe that it’s possible to be welcomed back.

But Manfred can construct a way that allows Rose to return to the sport in a constructive manner. (The issue of whether Rose would be eligible for Hall of Fame selection can be left to the discretion of the Hall -- it’s not Manfred’s place to decide that -- but given the outspoken views of current Hall of Famers about Rose’s actions before and after he was suspended, it’s very unlikely that any veterans’ committee would vote for Rose while he’s alive.)

Rose will be 74 years old this April. Even if baseball permits him to return for some kind of role, he would never manage again, he would never be a general manager. If Manfred wants to ensure that Rose could never influence any game, he could stipulate that Rose is not allowed to work in baseball operations in any capacity -- not as a spring coach, or a special baseball adviser. Manfred should permit a permanent relationship between Rose and the Reds. Rose should be allowed to make appearances on behalf of the team, speak to fans and contribute to broadcasts. Whether the Reds choose to retire his number should be a decision left to Cincinnati ownership.

AP Photo/Al BehrmanThe lifetime ban for Pete Rose has, at this point, effectively served its purpose.

But keeping him outside the gates entirely is pointless now. Rose is already marginalized, destined to have some form of the phrase "lifetime ban" among the first words of his obituary. He was investigated, he agreed to the plea bargain, and eventually, he confessed. He has been suitably shamed, kept away from the game for many years.

That’s enough.

Rose has a habit of saying stuff that makes folks in baseball cringe, and if he went to work for the Reds in some capacity, it’s possible he would make some gaffes. But if he did again, would it really matter? If he criticized Selig on the Reds’ airwaves, for example, would this change the perception of any baseball fan -- whether they like Rose or not -- about his past actions? Rose has reached an age where words are more easily forgiven, like those uttered by an uncle or a grandfather at a holiday dinner table. Pete Rose is who he is.

He is the all-time hit king, who had more plate appearances than anyone in history, with almost 2,000 plate appearances more than the guy in second place. He is someone who played with a passion that burned in him, and was part of one of baseball’s last dynasties. He is a former manager of the Reds who broke Ty Cobb’s record. He is the most prominent figure in baseball history guilty of violating what is regarded as the sport's most important rule. He is someone who deceived the sport’s leaders, and was kicked out for decades. He is beloved by Reds fans.

None of that will be changed by giving Pete Rose a role in the sport now, by letting him back into baseball and allowing an aged man a last opportunity to connect with fans who loved him, and to make a final peace

The Indians are trying something new this season, with six weeknight games in April and May being designated with 6:10 p.m. start times. Those games fall on the following dates:

• Tuesday, April 14 vs. Chicago

• Monday, April 27 vs. Kansas City

• Tuesday, April 28 vs. Kansas City

• Wednesday, April 29 vs. Kansas City

• Tuesday, May 12 vs. St. Louis

• Wednesday, May 13 vs. St. Louis

When asked about the reasoning behind the 6:10 p.m. starts, an Indians spokesperson said the club will make a formal announcement in the coming days.

Existing within an area that has seen more than its share of financial difficulty, the Indians have endeavored to be as attentive to what their fans need and want as any organization in baseball. The Indians will soon explain their thought process, as Zack writes, but presumably, the fact that school is in session in April and May was a major consideration.

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ABOUT THIS BLOG

Buster Olney

Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of two books. "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," is a Times best-seller, and "How Lucky You Can Be", about basketball coaching legend Don Meyer, was released in 2011.

He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).